Illinois researchers have demonstrated that sound waves can be used to produce ultraminiature optical diodes that are tiny enough to fit onto a computer chip. These devices, called optical isolators, may help solve major data capacity and system size challenges for photonic integrated circuits, the light-based equivalent of electronic circuits, which are used for computing […]
Click Beetles Inspire Design of Self-Righting Robots
Robots perform many tasks that humans can’t or don’t want to perform, getting around on intricately designed wheels and limbs. If they tip over, however, they are rendered almost useless. A team of University of Illinois mechanical engineers and entomologists are looking to click beetles, who can right themselves without the use of their legs, […]
Click Beetles Inspire Design Of Self-Righting Robots
Robots perform many tasks that humans can’t or don’t want to perform, getting around on intricately designed wheels and limbs. If they tip over, however, they are rendered almost useless. A team of University of Illinois mechanical engineers and entomologists are looking to click beetles, who can right themselves without the use of their legs, […]
Electroplating Delivers High-Energy, High-Power Batteries
The process that makes gold-plated jewelry or chrome car accents is now making powerful lithium-ion batteries. Researchers at the University of Illinois, Xerion Advanced Battery Corporation and Nanjing University in China developed a method for electroplating lithium-ion battery cathodes, yielding high-quality, high-performance battery materials that could also open the door to flexible and solid-state batteries. […]
Electroplating Delivers High-Energy, High-Power Batteries
The process that makes gold-plated jewelry or chrome car accents is now making powerful lithium-ion batteries. Researchers at the University of Illinois, Xerion Advanced Battery Corporation and Nanjing University in China developed a method for electroplating lithium-ion battery cathodes, yielding high-quality, high-performance battery materials that could also open the door to flexible and solid-state batteries. […]
Tiny Nanoclusters Could Solve Big Problems for Lithium-Ion Batteries
As devices become smaller and more powerful, they require faster, smaller, more stable batteries. University of Illinois chemists have developed a superionic solid that could be the basis of next-generation lithium-ion batteries. Chemistry professor Prashant Jain and graduate students Sarah White and Progna Banerjee described the material – ultrasmall nanoclusters of copper selenide – in […]
Open-Source Plant Database Confirms Top U.S. Bioenergy Crop
Scientists have confirmed that Miscanthus, long speculated to be the top biofuel producer, yields more than twice as much as switchgrass in the U.S. using an open-source bioenergy crop database gaining traction in plant science, climate change, and ecology research. “To understand yield trends and variation across the country for our major food crops, extensive databases […]
Researchers Demo Tunable Wetting and Adhesion of Graphene
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated doping-induced tunable wetting and adhesion of graphene, revealing new and unique opportunities for advanced coating materials and transducers. “Our study suggests that the doping-induced modulation of the charge carrier density in graphene influences its wettability and adhesion,” explained SungWoo Nam, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical […]
Seventh-Graders Learn Astrophysics Through Mixed-Reality Computer Simulation
Had the “learn’d astronomer’s” charts and theorems inspired the 19th-century writer Walt Whitman as much as strolling under the nighttime sky, Whitman might have become an astrophysicist instead of a stargazing poet. Researchers at the University of Illinois hope to inspire greater numbers of young people to become astronomers – or at least to embrace learning science […]
Biodiesel From Sugarcane More Economical Than Soybean
America’s oil consumption far exceeds that of every other country in the world. What’s more, it’s unsustainable. Therefore, in 2007, Congress mandated a move away from petroleum-based oils toward more renewable sources. Soybeans, an important dietary protein and the current primary source of plant-based oils used for biodiesel production, only yield about one barrel per acre. […]